


Too Late

by Xiaolxn



Category: Xiaolin Showdown (Cartoon)
Genre: Abusive Relationships, Drabbles, F/M, Freeform, I literally spat this whole thing out in a night, I'm just covering my basics yo, I'm only tagging to cover my own ass, Manipulation, One-Sided Relationship, Stars by Nina Simone, Upsetting themes, also wrote this whilst listening to, but all very mild, finished at 5:30am get rekt sleep schedules, let me live my life have some actual tags, on repeat CONSTANTLY, so if you have a hopeless vibe from it that'd be why LOL, started at 2am
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-04
Updated: 2018-08-04
Packaged: 2019-06-21 14:05:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15559347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xiaolxn/pseuds/Xiaolxn
Summary: “I’ve had a history in believing the Heylin allegiance has been…overcrowded,” he frowned. “My attitude hasn’t changed.”“Am I stepping on your toes?”“You’re seeking to make an enemy of me.”“You were already my enemy, Chase, in a decisively unfair and one-sided war.” She moved her robes over her knees and stood. “Blind and powerless, relying on the crutches of dear Dashi’s aged artefacts and the generosity of others, whilst you sit atop your pedestal as the greatest warrior in the history of this world.”“You’re hardly one to criticize a pedestal right now.”“I simply evened the odds. Throne included.”One-shot detailing the explanation and reasoning behind Aeris's fall from the Xiaolin side, as well as an exploration into her relationship with the one who pushed her.





	Too Late

_“You’re too late.”_

It was evident, just from her appearance, that she was telling the truth. There was something almost akin to sorrow in her words, underneath the bitterness, underneath the alien emotion that was anger in her voice. Aeris didn’t express anger, didn’t express fury, didn’t express any negative emotions in any way; yet, somehow, it was as if her many years on this planet repressing these feelings had broken through in those three simple words.  
He’d never heard three words spoken with such fury.

Such…disappointment.

She was moving away from him now, waving her hand over the orb she’d been standing by; it blackened and dulled, cutting off whatever vision she was seeing, whoever she had been spying on. The magic that went into those particular artefacts was one of a much darker kind than she originally practiced, and as such, it was a surprise to see one in her possession. But then, nothing about her seemed to be running smoothly, not only from what he could see, but what he could smell, what he could taste.

_You’re too late._

Perhaps he was perfectly on time.

She sat down slowly, resting her ankle on her knee. Her robes pooled around her chair, (throne, perhaps was the more apt description) in thick black pools, the darkness such a harsh contrast to the paper white of her skin and hair. Aeris had forever been the palest woman he had ever known, but there was something about it now that had changed, taken it to a new level; even when the blessings of mortality had been stripped from her and the colour had drained from her personage, there was still some glimmer of life. Now there was nothing, a husk without pallor, pure, unfiltered white. She had always been human, now she was something more.  
It was intriguing.

“I gifted you eternity, Aeris. There’s no such thing as too late.”

She raised an eyebrow, resting her chin on the back of her hand. She used to sit upright with her hands folded gently on her lap, ankles delicately crossed in the absolute picture of elegance. Now she slumped slightly, one leg crossed over the other, abandoning all poise in favour of relaxation. After fifteen hundred years, the façade was finally gone. In the light she’d stagnated, but in the dark, she’d finally blossomed. A new era of growth was on the cards, and if he played his hand correctly…she could belong in his deck.

But not right now. She was listening, it was evident, but it was as if his words weren’t…landing. They went in one ear and right out the other, leaving no impression on her whatsoever. He couldn’t blame her, really. Her mind must be processing a thousand and one different things. He’d been through this change himself, after all, he knew what it was like. It had taken him weeks to completely adjust and she’d only undergone the transformation relatively recently; politeness bade he gave her time, necessity kept it from him.

“I’m not one for hosting private conversations.” Her voice, so soft, so cold, drew him from his reverie. “Not these days. Say what you’ve come to say or leave me in peace.” Her eyes narrowed. “I don’t want you here.”

“Of course you don’t.” His lips parted in a sharp-toothed smirk. “Adjustments such as these require solitude, I remember well enough. We do dwell in the darkness, after all; it’s not exactly the kind of influence one would host under.”

“I was never one for it beforehand.”

“And you did it anyway. It was expected of you, and you did so hate to disappoint.”

He stepped forwards, barely repressing a smile as she unfolded her legs, alerting him to how prepared she was to defend herself if necessary. He couldn’t see through those swathes of black cloth, but he knew her heels were planted firmly against the ground now. She was more than ready to strike, fend him off if she had to. Whilst he had no intention of initiating a fight when he arrived, he had to confess; it was growing more and more tempting. He wanted to get to know this Aeris, test her mettle as it were. She was far different from the woman he’d known since his youth, she deserved that exploration.

“My dear Aeris, whatever has become of you?” He stood only a few feet away now, his hands folded behind his back. He would exude ease in her realm, make it his own, push her to the very edge of discomfort and see how she would fight her way back. He did enjoy a good fight, but there were other ways to test ones resolve. “So good and pure and bright. Why, I’d even go so far as to say the creature before me hasn’t once smiled before, although I have plenty of memories to suggest otherwise.” A slight falter. “…What have you done to yourself?”

“Do you stand before me as my judge?”

“I stand before you with concern.” His smirk suddenly turned into a scowl, the corners of his lips twisting down in such a way to turn his handsome face…unpleasant. “I gave you eternity to walk alongside me. What happens to you matters to me.”

“You wanted a pet to _torment_.”

“I wanted an equal. Is that what you’ve finally given me?”

Her smirk wasn’t as pronounced as his own, but definitely noticeable. It was definitely sharper on her right side than her left, the corner of her lips arching upwards. This expression used to be pretty. Now…it was unpleasant.

“An equal?” She took her chin off of the back of her hand, sitting back in her throne with her arms folded. Her nails were longer, sharper than last he saw them. “Chase Young has no equal. You never have. No, my dear, you know you don’t have an equal in this room…you’re more concerned that you have a rival.”

“I’ve had a history in believing the Heylin allegiance has been…overcrowded,” he frowned. “My attitude hasn’t changed.”

“Am I stepping on your toes?”

“You’re seeking to make an enemy of me.”

“You were already my enemy, Chase, in a decisively unfair and one-sided war.” She moved her robes over her knees and stood. “Blind and powerless, relying on the crutches of dear Dashi’s aged artefacts and the generosity of others, whilst you sit atop your pedestal as the greatest warrior in the history of this world.”

“You’re hardly one to criticise a pedestal right now.”

“I simply evened the odds. Throne included.”

He stood to the side as she descended the steps; an offer of a hand was surprisingly accepted, and he slowly walked her down to the bottom. Her realm, her palace, her…lair, was small and dark, containing few items of interest or value, but he wasn’t fooled in the slightest; he himself had started like this, a mere foothold to gather himself in his youth before he decided his surroundings needed to be more…comfortable. It was only a matter of time before she would see things the same way and surround herself with beauty, just because she could. Immortality bred greed, after all, as no one else could fully appreciate it in their lifetimes.

“…What did you give,” he asked slowly, “in exchange?”

“Be clear.”

“You couldn’t have traded your soul.” He released her hand as she turned to face him. “You can’t trade what doesn’t belong to you.”

“You can’t really take what doesn’t belong to you…”

“I did.”

“…Without consequences.”

He paused, eliciting a smile from her as she folded her arms. Oh, that was more like it. A soft, beautiful smile on a face to match. The Aeris he knew.

“…Tell me.”

“You don’t look so different.” Ice. If anything could describe that feeling of realisation, it was ice. Cold and sudden. “A little…less humble, I don’t enjoy the armour, personally, but your face is…still the same.”

“…I’d have some complaints if it wasn’t.” His arms mirrored hers, folding slowly across his chest. “You gained your vision, Aeris. You did…all of this, this corruption, just so you would be able to see again?”

“You could never understand-”

“No, I couldn’t,” he frowned. “But this is foolishness. You’ve given…everything-”

“I was more than aware of what I would have to give up, Chase.” Her composure had slipped slightly; she moved to push her hair behind her ear, distracting herself. As each second passed, she’d do something to put him more at ease. Perhaps she hadn’t changed so much, perhaps there was still a glimmer of her underneath. The sweet woman he had tried to preserve all those years ago. “And I decided it was worth it. I have no regrets.”

“What did you pay?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“Your soul isn’t yours.” He frowned. “I took it centuries ago. You cannot trade away what belongs to me-”

“As mistaken as you are, I didn’t.” She gestured to herself. “…This isn’t a lack of soul, my dear. Our souls are just essence. Our memories, our life force…a soul is our basis but it is also basic; I can trade away all that I am without laying a finger on it.”

“So you gave away your conscience-?”

“The voice which held me down,” she frowned. “That part of me that…told me that I didn’t matter, that life only had meaning if I put every other being in this world before me, if my needs were second to the cosmos. That rotten, despicable segment of my entity which may as well have killed me for all the good it did me. All I ever did was help others, and I made no steps to help myself, and I stagnated.”

He had to agree.

“Now stretch that voice on for a thousand lifetimes.” She unfolded her arms. “…That isn’t a mere…negative presence. It became its own creature, Chase. And…that’s what was asked in exchange. And I parted with it more than willingly.”

“…It must have been a relief.”

“I opened my eyes and I could see. I forgot what…colour was, how it flashes, changes, how it can affect ones’ mood and actions…for the first time, I saw the faces of those I love-”

“Love, but no longer care for.” He frowned. “The part of you which needed to care for them is gone.”

“Indeed.” She was calm. “But that is the price I paid and I’m no longer hindered by those needs. I am unperturbed by the universe, and after so many years of being owned by it…yes. I am relieved.”

He was silent for a while, looking over her shoulder as he processed all that she’d said. It would seem…patience truly did have its limits. She’d lasted an unprecedented amount of time, over a millennium to be more precise; that was a long time to be kind, to be sweet, to be benevolent…to serve a universe which had only taken from you. Her tightrope had grown worn and thin as she marched onwards, letting others walk over her just for the purpose of advancing them beyond her reach. She’d lasted long, been so much stronger than any other in history…but now, even her patience had come to an end. She had snapped.

No. She’d taken control.

It had just…taken her a while to do so.

“How did you trade with him,” were the first words he spoke after his silence, “when he’s been imprisoned beyond this realm?”

“If you want something bad enough…”

“You weren’t foolish enough to go in after him?” His voice was stern now, his hand gripping her shoulder. Credit was due, she seemed unmoved, but there was a fire behind her eyes now. Life, at long last, danced there. “The Ying-Yang realm is dangerous enough-”

“Calm down, Chase, or I might actually start to think you care.”

His grip tightened.

“What did you do?”

“I didn’t need to seek him out,” she frowned. “You may own my soul, but before you stole mine, you sold yours. Progression of ownership.”

“He does not own you-”

“Correct.” She gripped his wrist, eyes narrowing. “But he sees this world through you. He has people, creatures, things, stalking this realm and the next on his behalf, keeping an eye on everything until he can get out and wreak a little more havoc. He came to me because he knew it was what I wanted. And I gave him…I gave him what he asked.”

“You didn’t actually-?”

“No. It was his presence, not his actual self.” Her grip on his wrist loosened slightly. “He is still firmly imprisoned where you left him, my dear, this I can promise you. He’s exactly where he’s always been.”

“And now he has a beast of pure negativity and hatred at his bidding,” he frowned, but his fingertips slowly began to loosen on her shoulder. “One from this world, locked in that one. It…will be able to pass between realms.”

“I have no doubt in my mind he will attempt to use it to free himself,” was her reply. “But that hasn’t happened yet. It’s a problem for tomorrow, or the day after. And if he manages to return to this realm, I will stand as its protector, as I have done before.”

“…And here I thought that the voice compelling you to protect others was long gone.”

“It’s hardly semantics, Chase, I just can’t live in a world if it’s been destroyed.”

His smile broke her; she hid her grin behind her fingers, shoulders shaking slightly with laughter. She was still capable of laughter, enough so to remind him that he was, too; it was amicable, to stand with one so familiar and yet so alien, to laugh with her like nothing had changed. He did so enjoy her laugh; even now, it was light, possibly even lighter than before now she had nothing to hold her back or drag her down. She was changed, forever and permanent, but there were still inklings of the old Aeris tucked underneath this new marble front.

A little chipping away would let her shine through.

The laughter died as she took his hands gently in her own, his gloves rough against her soft skin. He looked down as her fingers gently gripped his, a strand of hair falling over her shoulder. He immediately reclaimed one of his hands to push it back behind her ear where it belonged, only pausing when she stepped forwards, her arms sliding around his neck.

She held him tightly, her face out of sight, buried into the crook of his neck. He was still for a moment, but then slowly allowed his arms to wrap around her waist, hand coming to a rest on her back. She was still warm to the touch, such an odd contrast to the way she looked; with skin and hair so white, one would expect her to feel like ice. But no, she belied her appearance, instead soft and warm beneath his hands, even through the material of his gloves. Her hair tickled his cheekbone, her nails brushing the nape of his neck; so many sensations in a simple embrace he almost forgot she was embracing him at all, only reminded of such intimacy when she spoke right into his ear, voice so soft he might not have heard her;

“Solitude…is not what I want.”

He frowned, his hand moving to her hair; it slipped through his fingers like water, pure, white water, falling over his knuckles and down her shoulders and back, each strand visible against the black of her robes.

“…Of course it’s not,” he muttered, that hand coming to a rest on her shoulder, the other still firmly on her back. “Before…that wouldn’t have been enough to entice you from it. But that isn’t who you are now.” He could feel her hand on his face, thumb brushing over his cheek; those nails were sharp, a caution he’d be sure to take. “Now, you take what you want when you want it, so, tell me, Aeris; if you don’t want solitude, how will you amend it?”

“You don’t want an answer,” she murmured. “Not truly.” He rested his hand on hers. “In truth, you already have it…you just want it spoken aloud.”

“Call it my pride.”

“I do. Unabashedly.” Smirk. “I won’t feed your ego.”

“Even if I asked?”

“You don’t ask, you take.” She moved away and he frowned at the feeling of emptiness in his arms, at the void she’d suddenly left. It seemed she’d make a habit of creating voids, be it in herself or others. It angered him how much it affected him, but Aeris, his soft, gentle Aeris, had always been predictable, always been his. Now…she was something else entirely, out of his control. Her age, her proclivity for the arcane, her power…

He had to take control of that again. One way or another.

He watched as she leant back on the pedestal which housed the orb from the beginning of this encounter, her eyes tracing the smooth, black glass in an effort to distract. It was hard to distract however when he stepped behind her, chest against her back, hands on her own. That tended to distract.

“You will cling to neutrality now,” he murmured in her ear. No. Not a murmur; it was almost a purr, the hiss of the Serpent to Eve, temptation vocalised. Tempt her.

“You want to believe you’re still a good person, so you will try convince yourself that you are. You will fight to avoid the darkness you’ve flung yourself into, but I will be there every step of the way to pull you further into it.” His face was buried into her neck now, vaguely mirroring their positions only moments before; his grip tightened on her hands and he could feel her head fall back on his shoulder, her eyes closing. “You’ve flung yourself into my world, now. We two stand alone atop a crumbling empire. You’ve seen what’s become of the Heylin before your unprecedented arrival. A laughing stock of oddities and wannabes, no real threat to the world. You and I are going to change that.”

If she was breathing, he couldn’t hear it. His grip on her hands simply tightened, his chin coming to a rest on her shoulder.  
“In your attempt to take power back for yourself, in your attempt to serve no one…you’ve simply made me stronger.” He suddenly released her hand, running his own up her arms before wrapping tightly around her waist, pinning her back firmly to his chest. He wasn’t the Serpent, no, not at all; he was merely the charmer, enticing this snake of a woman into a trance, lulling her into security, her eyes closed, her head collapsed on his shoulder, all of that white hair running down his back. Claim as she might her soul didn’t define her, it was still his property, and right now…so was she.

“My dear, sweet, foolish Aeris,” he murmured. “What a truly terrible mistake you’ve made.” One arm still tightly around her waist, the other moved upwards until his palm rested across her throat. He could feel her pulse, tick-tick-ticking away gently under his fingertips. Life, literally, in his palm. “I will be sure to repay you in whatever way I can. Whatever way I wish.” He gently nudged her chin around with his fingers until her temple came to a rest against his, her breath warm on his face; she even smelt the same, underneath the pang of something dark, something new.

_Something evil._

His kiss was soft, sweet, simple, barely lasting a few seconds but burning for an eternity; he felt her slump and he finally curled his fingers through her hair, turning her to face him properly, embrace him properly, let her ride out the trance with the appropriate support. Her hands gripped his back tightly as he stroked her hair, that smirk once more twisting on his lips. He could hear her mumble something into his chest, something ineffectual, something he didn’t care about. All he knew right now, all he really knew, really cared about, was that after all of this time…

She was his.

And she’d done it all on her own.

" _Too late"_ indeed.

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly thought my first contribution to this website would be trashy Mercykill fanfic, which, not gonna lie, is definitely coming. :’) But I was suddenly blasted with extreme Chaeris emotions earlier this evening so I vomited this trashbag up and decided it was good enough to share.  
> This fanfic just takes a quick peek at Aeris’s motives and feelings, as well as what she traded and what she gained to bring her down to the level. Or up, depends where you stand on the matter.  
> For anyone who’s new to me, you can find out more about Aeris over at my Deviantart; https://www.deviantart.com/primeday  
> Thanks for reading, please do leave a kudos if you enjoyed!


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